On or around August 23, 1823, Hugh Glass, an American frontiersman and fur trapper, somehow survives a brutal grizzly bear attack in what is present-day northwestern South Dakota. After being abandoned by companions, he is forced to travel more than 200 miles alone to reach safety—crawling, stumbling and eventually floating his way downriver in a makeshift canoe.

During his annual address to Congress, President James Monroe proclaims a new U.S. foreign policy initiative that becomes known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” Primarily the work of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe Doctrine forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.

On December 23, 1823, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” perhaps the most famous and influential Christmas poem ever is published in the Troy Sentinel newspaper in New York by an anonymous author. Called "arguably the best-known verses ever written,” it would shape the modern image of Santa Claus as "a right jolly old elf" who travels through the air in a reindeer-powered sleigh on Christmas eve, bounding down chimneys after children are asleep to leave them holiday gifts.